On Aug 3, the Fagradalsfjall Volcano began to erupt in the Meradailr Valley. Just about 1.5 k from the previous eruption that ended last year. We knew we had to make every effort to see this possible once in a life time event. There were reports of the hike being not well marked and pretty difficult. Since we had no idea how to go about that, we booked a tour. Our tour was for this evening so Rusty was eager to get the day going. He did some laundry, made us oatmeal for breakfast all before I could drag myself out from the 3rd night of sleeping in the tent.

It was raining, but not terrible hard. That changed quickly. Suddenly we were in a downpour and we still needed to get the tent down. That was quite the adventure rearranging bags so we could get the wet tent into the van. Our plan was to hike to the Reykjadalur Hot Spring Thermal River. The rain showed no signs of stopping and we weren’t quite up for a rainy cold hike in the morning and the volcano in the evening. So we changed our plans and headed into Reykjavik. Our first stop was the Perlan Museum. It was fun! We learned a lot about the volcanos and glaciers that formed Iceland. We even got to walk through an ice cave. 

They have a little planetarium where we watched a show about the Northern Lights. Rusty said, “we all know how I do in planetariums. I’m not even going to try. Wake me up when it’s over.”

We had some time to kill before we could check into the hotel. Rusty really wanted to hit up at least one geothermal swimming pool on our trip. Our days have been so long that he hasn’t had the opportunity. We found one nearby called Laugardalslaug and gave it a go. Halle didn’t want to swim and the boys took one look at the required communal shower and said no thanks. Josh said, “I want to see lava! NOT butts!” So just Rusty and I went. It was cool to get to experience this piece of Iceland culture! We went on the water slide, swam in the pool and tried all the different temperatures of hot tubs. We even sat in the sauna then dunked ourselves in the cold pool. I pulled this pic from Google. Our day was much foggier, rainier and colder.

About this time we found out the volcano tour was cancelled due to weather. We were all sooooo disappointed. We were glad we had one more day to try. 

We spent the evening wandering around Reykjavik. We saw the famous Hallgrimskirche. We did some souvenir shopping where Blake went bargain hunting for the best deal on a stuffed puffin. Blake jept back talking Halle and she kept saying “6 more days till college. Just 6 more days.” Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. I do not like that one little bit. 

Then we walked to Fly Over Iceland. My Dad said we couldn’t miss it. It was fun soaring over all those beautiful places. And we realized we barely scratched the surface of this amazing country. A return trip is definitely in order. 

We rode the city bus back to downtown and had dinner at Reykjavik Fish and Chips. It was fantastic!  We tried fish stew, which was more like a bisque, and plokkari (fish and potato) with homemade rye bread. We all loved that dish. And of course we also had some fish and chips. We are a lot of fish and chips this trip! We wandered down the street before stopping for Ice cream at Valdis before returning to the hotel. 

After we got back I had a call with President McDonald and he released me from my calling as Stake YW President. I knew it was coming, but I was still really sad. I have enjoyed this calling so very much. Through the good and the bad, it was so fun to be able to serve with the youth the whole time Halle was a YW. I’m going to have a lot of time on my hands to fill!”

We all went to bed with butterflies in our stomachs hoping for the volcano in the morning.